3 Reasons Why Wearing A Retainer Is So Important

Posted on: 17 July 2018

After wearing braces for months or years, it's not unheard of for people to slack on wearing their retainers at night. While putting on a retainer can be a slight nuisance at times, it's something you really should do. Here are three main benefits you're missing out on if you're not wearing your retainer as you should.

1. Maintains Your Dentist's Work

First and foremost, retainers are designed to maintain what your cosmetic dentist did to your teeth. As the name implies, it retains the shape of your teeth. While this may seem like a simple enough thing, skipping wearing your retainer on a regular basis can allow your teeth to slip significantly. Micro adjustments that your teeth experience from biting, chewing, and perhaps engaging in bad habits like chewing your nails are corrected by wearing your retainer daily, so don't skip it.

2. Alerts to Problems

When your teeth shift out of place, your retainer is the first tool you have to notice that there's an issue. If your teeth move, your retainer may feel out of place or uncomfortable. This is because more strain is being put on certain parts of your teeth as they're not in the position they should be and the retainer is trying to push them back into that shape.

If you ever go for a long time without wearing your retainer and try to put it on only for it to pop off, bad news. There's a good chance that the shape of your teeth has changed so much that you can't fix the problem with a retainer anymore. To avoid having to wear braces again, stick to your retainer.

3. Prevents Bite Damage

Lastly, retainers offer an extra benefit to their wearers: they prevent tooth grinding in the night.

Modern retainers look a lot like dental guards that people can wear while they sleep to keep themselves from grinding their teeth down to nubs. Retainers work the same way By encapsulating your teeth in a thin layer of plastic, you aren't able to rub and grind your teeth together which can cause them to wear down and become weakened over the years.

Since it was important enough to you to have your teeth straightened, keeping them looking good overall is likely important to you, too, so don't pass up on your retainer.

Wearing a retainer isn't painful or particularly unpleasant, so why skip it? Take the extra step to clean your retainer and pop it on when you're tasked to. Doing so will keep your teeth and the corrections you've been through as nice as the day your braces came off. For more information, contact your local cosmetic dentistry office. 

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